Blink Broadband

[Sirius]

Anyone on TSTT's Blink Broadband service yet?

I have been having signal drops on my DSL lately forcing me to reboot the modem. I rebooted it last night and this morning I found the internet was running faster than normal. According to TSTT's broadband speed test, I am now running at 1 Mbps. The signal is still dropping sometimes but not as much as before. Seems the reason might be they're migrating my area to ADSL2+.

When we contacted 62-BLINK to ask why we were not increased to 2 Mbps as requested they said to contact them Monday when the team responsible is on duty. I can say however that at 1 Mbps the difference is quite apparent. :)

[BW]

Could I ask what type of modem it is? Speedstream, Paradyne or the other one?

[Sirius]

SpeedStream 5200

I went through the settings other day to change the LLC encapsulation to VCMUX. All the other settings were fine as received from TSTT probably about 4 years ago.

[BW]

SpeedStream 5200

I went through the settings other day to change the LLC encapsulation to VCMUX. All the other settings were fine as received from TSTT probably about 4 years ago.

w00t! :P :P :P

I've got the same modem (also made the encapsulation change) and I've been wondering if it would work with the Blink service. Apparently people were saying that the speedstreams would need to be replaced for blink service. But hey, if it's working for you, yaya :) !!

[Solachica]

I see they wud be in my area next.
I need a fone line for this? Considering I haven't had use of a fone line since Feb becos of copper thieves.

[discipuli]

ADSL 2 is backwards with ADSL 1 modems , but you cant' get 10mbit + speeds on the older modems.

[BW]

I see they wud be in my area next.
I need a fone line for this? Considering I haven't had use of a fone line since Feb becos of copper thieves.

gosh darn copper thieves. Have you considered Greendot (no copper to steal :\) ? There are mixed reviews for them (some people say great customer service, others say not), but if you don't have a good alternative...

mail.tt for contact information

[Sirius]

SpeedStream 5200

I went through the settings other day to change the LLC encapsulation to VCMUX. All the other settings were fine as received from TSTT probably about 4 years ago.

w00t! :P :P :P

I've got the same modem (also made the encapsulation change) and I've been wondering if it would work with the Blink service. Apparently people were saying that the speedstreams would need to be replaced for blink service. But hey, if it's working for you, yaya :) !!

I think the 4200 modems need to be replaced, not the 5200. I need to talk to them about these signal drops though...its getting incrementally more annoying! Anyway. I attached a screen capture of the speed test...it shows what I've gotten since the boost:

[attachment=0:07ee4]1.01-Mbps-TSTT-Blink.gif[/attachment:07ee4]

[Sirius]

A more detailed speed test:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/201010753.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[BW]

^^ just fyi, don't ever use the Curacao server. It maxes out at around 1.5Mbps, and it doesn't really measure anything higher than that. The servers in the US are much better suited to the mult-megabit packages we have available now.

[Sirius]

Really now...well I'll try the other servers when I get the proper 2mb i'm supposed to lol...can't wait.

The connection is still dropping now and then though...hrm.

[amzz]

Can anyone say what barriers are there to this blink broadband?
What sort of testing has to be done before subscriptions are approved?

[Sirius]

Once you give your address they'll be able to check if you're within range for the service. After that basically it should just be a signal test to make sure your lines are in good condition. Blink isn't everywhere in the country yet though. It's coming in on a phase by phase basis, you can check it on http://www.blinkbroadband.tt

[amzz]

So sirius, if lines in my area weren't capable of delivering tstt's dsl service will it be different for blink?

..there just doesn't seem to be any hope..

[Sirius]

Blink is DSl. It's just a rebranding for the upgrade to ADSL2+ technology. I believe it has a somewhat longer range than the old TSTT HSIA (regular ADSL) service but you do still need to be within a certain range of the exchange for it to work. If you're too far from the exchange you may have to wait on FLOW since cable internet is not limited by distance from an exchange.

[vaio]

i'm thinkin of getting blink, i think its either coming to my area or already there....but what are the prices though?

[Sirius]

Vaio: http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/Packages.html

[lollybob2]

Hear this nah.. i didnt wanna start a whole new topic

But anybody else experiencing the most sporadic DSL service recently?

I doh know if is the whole Blink phase over thing.. but im in vistabella...

The only thing i can do with my dsl is sign on to MSN and check all my email accounts that i have centralised into Outlook 2003.

Tryin to browse websites is an impossible trial daily. Rebooting the modem (i have a paradyne) does no good.

Like it took me 22 mins to finally get connected to this site... and more than likely when i click post it gonna be dead again. :?:

[Sirius]

Hear this nah.. i didnt wanna start a whole new topic

But anybody else experiencing the most sporadic DSL service recently?

I doh know if is the whole Blink phase over thing.. but im in vistabella...

The only thing i can do with my dsl is sign on to MSN and check all my email accounts that i have centralised into Outlook 2003.

Tryin to browse websites is an impossible trial daily. Rebooting the modem (i have a paradyne) does no good.

Like it took me 22 mins to finally get connected to this site... and more than likely when i click post it gonna be dead again. :?:

Well I mentioned the dropping of the signal before so I'm glad someone else seems to be having this issue. It's been happening for about 3-ish weeks now...signal would drop out entirely for a few seconds, then would come back on but not reconnect to TSTT. When I reboot the modem, it will reconnect. Happens every couple of hours it seems. It appears to have gone down in frequency since I got the boost to 1Mb but it still happens. If it's still happening when I get the full 2Mb I'm supposed to get with the upgrade, I'm going to raise a stink. SpeedStream 5200 modem here.

On a side note, one of my neighbors told me he's been experiencing times where it seems his browsing and everything stops, but his connection restores itself after a minute or so without requiring a reboot. Maybe he has a different modem to me and is better at auto-reconnect, but that's why I've been passing it off as teething problems due to the changeover to ADSL2+.

[sylvestter]

this was mine:

http://www.speedtest.net/result/201633513.png (http://www.speedtest.net)

[BW]

Hear this nah.. i didnt wanna start a whole new topic

But anybody else experiencing the most sporadic DSL service recently?

I doh know if is the whole Blink phase over thing.. but im in vistabella...

The only thing i can do with my dsl is sign on to MSN and check all my email accounts that i have centralised into Outlook 2003.

Tryin to browse websites is an impossible trial daily. Rebooting the modem (i have a paradyne) does no good.

Like it took me 22 mins to finally get connected to this site... and more than likely when i click post it gonna be dead again. :?:

That sounds like a DNS issue. TSTT is known to have a very unstable DNS server, and it is known to give problems like that.

Do yourself a favor and head over to openDNS.com, and change your DNS servers to theirs. There's a neat guide (CLICK ME (https://www.opendns.com/start?device=windows-xp)) on how to change your DNS servers in Windows XP. There's also a good guide for OSX (clicky (https://www.opendns.com/start?device=apple-osx-tiger)).

If for some reason you can't load those links, I'll copy/paste over the text instructions. Illustrated instructions are available via the links.

1. Select Control Panel from the Start menu.
2. Click Network Connections from the Control Panel choices.
3. Choose your connection from the Network Connections window.
4. Click Properties button.
5. Select Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties.
6. Click the radio button Use the following DNS server addresses and type in OpenDNS addresses in the Preferred DNS server and Alternate DNS server fields.

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Doing that should make your connection more reliable.

-----
edit: I guess I should tell you what a DNS server is actually. Taking this from Wikipedia,


On the Internet, the Domain Name System (DNS) associates various sorts of information with so-called domain names; most importantly, it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-readable computer hostnames, e.g. en.wikipedia.org, into the IP addresses, e.g. 66.230.200.100, that networking equipment needs to deliver information. It also stores other information such as the list of mail exchange servers that accept email for a given domain. In providing a worldwide keyword-based redirection service, the Domain Name System is an essential component of contemporary Internet use.

I like that phone book analogy.

Suppose you want to get in contact with a person called "John Smith".
You look it up in the phonebook, and get his or her phone number (like 1-868-123-3214).

Now, it works almost the same way with webpages.

Suppose you want to get in contact with "google.com"
Your computer looks it up via a DNS server, and gets a number to contact that website (like 63.233.187.99).

Without that number, you cannot reach that website. Your DSL modem might be saying it's connected to TSTT, but unless this mechanism is working, you can't resolve the website address to the correct number, and you won't be able to connect to the website.

Websites you've visited before, however, will work fine (since the number is cached in your computer). This is why things (such as email or MSN or websites which you have visited previously will work fine, but no new websites will work.

The solution to a non-working or half-working DNS server (like TSTT's) is simply to just change it to another one. I would suggest that you could use OpenDNS's servers (208.67.222.222), or some other local or regional ones (like carib-link servers or those from other C&W territories).
----

[lollybob2]

Thanks for that explanation man.

I tried changing the dns server to opendns' so now we'll see how it goes.

[lollybob2]

Thanks for that explanation man.

I tried changing the dns server to opendns' so now we'll see how it goes.

[vaio]

Vaio: http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/Packages.html

thanx

[Sirius]

Latest updates. It has gone up to 2 Mbps, with spikes over 2. Still experiencing signal drops. Seems when it drops, the signal gradually grows weaker over the course of a minute to five minutes then goes dead, requiring a modem reboot. I'll have to call TSTT about that.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/201939330.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/201941851.png

[attachment=0:5fe53]2.22-Mbps-TSTT-Blink.gif[/attachment:5fe53]

[Ali]

^what speed you signed up for?

[lollybob2]

Still very ****ty service... on a bit more now but still mostly off..

time to call tstt i guess. o wat joy.

[Sirius]

^what speed you signed up for?

2 Mbit

[skl]

my adsl went completely dead divali and only got recconected yesterday. According to the TSTT guy they are implementing blink in the area and so the old configuration had to be updated. however I wont be able to actually aplly for blink until another month or so...becuase implementation not complete.

at any rate i think I'll be signing up for the 2mb service. no point in paying high prices for 128k.

[BW]

my adsl went completely dead divali and only got recconected yesterday. According to the TSTT guy they are implementing blink in the area and so the old configuration had to be updated. however I wont be able to actually aplly for blink until another month or so...becuase implementation not complete.

at any rate i think I'll be signing up for the 2mb service. no point in paying high prices for 128k.

no 128k packages chief.

Also, when he said 'configuration', he might have meant on your modem. When they are upgrading your area to blink, apparently they send out an e-mail requesting that you make some changes to your modem settings. It's just an encapsulation change, from LLC to VCMUX, as Sirius and I mentioned earlier. (linky (http://www.blinkbroadband.tt/ModemSettings.html) for instructions). You can do this yourself, no need to wait for a technician.

One more thing, are you in a Phase 2 area?

[skl]

You can do this yourself, no need to wait for a technician.

One more thing, are you in a Phase 2 area?

well technician came already , took him like 5 mins. I wasnt home so I dont know exactly what was done.

yeah I'm in a phase 2 area.

[Sirius]

So they told me my modem isn't fully supported by the new system which is why the connection is dropping. Said they'll get me a new modem. Somehow, this doesn't seem to make sense...the modem is ADSL2+ compliant and works well except for the dropping signal. Not like I can't connect at all. The nightmare of TSTT diagnosis begins...

[BW]

So they told me my modem isn't fully supported by the new system which is why the connection is dropping. Said they'll get me a new modem. Somehow, this doesn't seem to make sense...the modem is ADSL2+ compliant and works well except for the dropping signal. Not like I can't connect at all. The nightmare of TSTT diagnosis begins...

Bummer man. You had my hopes up there. It sounds like they are at least replacing it for free, so good for you. I'm on the month-to-month contract, and I hope they don't make me pay for the replacement modem. :|

Anyway, where did you get the idea that the 5200 is ADSL2+ compliant? I've done some searching on it, and it seems some later models are, but not all of them:

http://www.icn.siemens.com/icn/news/2003/03060203.html

The first products, available today, are ADSL2-capable and Reach Extended ADSL2-capable SpeedStream® 5100 Ethernet and SpeedStream® 5200 Ethernet + USB modems and routers. Supporting rates of up to 12Mbps downstream, service providers will be able to offer even faster service to subscribers. With extended reach of up to 2,000 feet beyond that of ADSL, service providers will be able to extend service to a larger number of customers. These rate/reach advancements will be made possible via a simple firmware upgrade.

...[snip]

The second group of products, available later this year, will provide ADSL2+ and Reach Extended ADSL2 compatibility for the SpeedStream® 5100 Ethernet and SpeedStream® 5200 Ethernet + USB modems and routers. ADSL2+ supports rates up to 24Mbps. These products will also offer software-adaptable ADSL front-end circuitry, allowing the CPE to automatically adapt to various real-world line conditions, such as bridge taps. These new modems and routers give service providers the means to offer unprecedented service performance and increased coverage areas.

In other words, it's legacy hardware with hacked-on support for newer protocols (ADSL2+ and the ADSL reach-extended). It doesn't really surprise me they would have trouble with the new Blink network. Other people have also reported issues with the speedstreams and blink, so it makes sense that would be the problem. Damn shame, though.

[Sirius]

Interesting Breadwinner, thanks for that bit of info. I had just done a quick search on the modem and saw it mentioned that it was ADSL2+ compliant, and then it was still connecting when ADSL2+ was implemented here so I just took it for granted.

Shame. Well, hopefully I'll get the new modem soon...I hope it solves the issue. They didn't mention anything about me having to pay for the replacement. I'll post updates when I get it.

[lollybob2]

so we call tstt a couple days ago and app. there's a glitch in the system and san fernando will be seeing blink in about 16 weeks... :x

lovely

[Sirius]

Would you believe the back and forth with TSTT only ended today? After too much bacchanal, a manager sent a message to some lady on the Edward Street branch to get a modem ready. Long story short, it's one of the run-of-the-mill Paradyne units they've been giving out for who knows how long with the TSTT branding on the front and the package. Connection seems fast and stable, at least thus far. We'll see how it goes.

[Huma]

I took the 2mbit package and it's been good so far.

Not very stable, however. I'm not complaining yet because I assume it's a teething problem.

[AirFalcon]

Anyone hear anything about new high speed providers coming into the market in the first half of 2008. A guy at work was telling me not to get into any contract for Blink because bigger and better comming soon.

[BW]

I haven't heard anything about new providers. I know Flow is likely to upgrade again in 2008, thanks to the US-Colombia expressway being added to ARCOS (linky (http://www.updatefrom.com/columbus/0710/whatsnew.html)). Greendot has secured a very good part of the wireless spectrum in a recent auction, so I expect them to be ramping up services as well, sooner or later.

Sorry to hear about that Sirius. I hope they don't give me beans like that when they reach down my side. At least you got it working though!.

[Sirius]

I've had to reboot the new Paradyne router twice since I installed it because my connection remained up but was just totally dead. Seems when it happened I was able to successfully complete an end-to-segment ping, but not an end-to-end ping. I am therefore led to assume it is not my line or my modem, but my exchange. Definately better than the Speedstream which required rebooting every couple of hours (sometimes more!) but it still does drop now and then. The connection itself is more stable than before, but it still fluctuates.

I am now seriously considering migrating to FLOW when they install digital in my area. This was supposedly to be done by year's end, so I look forward to them having it done in the first quarter of 2008.

[Huma]

I've had to reboot the new Paradyne router twice since I installed it because my connection remained up but was just totally dead.

Same thing happened to me for all of yesterday. I thought it was just a TSTT issue, but when I called them (on a whim, after 11 in the night), they instructed me to reboot the modem.

Problem solved, crisis (no internet for Christmas) averted.

[jpf]

they were still there after 11 in the night?

[Sirius]

They outsourced the tech support to some place in India. You can reach them anytime now, but it's quite a task to understand what they're saying! They also sometimes appear to be troubleshooting out of a textbook rather than what your problem actually is as well...

[skl]

that's my problem......

DSL gone for Christmas AGAIN (last time it went for divali) the India people trying to be helpful... but clearly my problem not in thier manual. I go have to try and contact Trini TSTT directly.

[greall]

Finally,I'm back... :D

I haven't been hearing any rave reviews about Blink on any other forums that I'm on but I think that patience is the key here.They were testing for a while in the Princes Town area where my office's located and we fell off the network in the miidle of some critical data uploads.They called our POS head office to apologize but I was happy in that I had nothing to do for the rest of the day.

They're working on it as best as they can but I think that their marketing department needs to have a chat with their technical services group because they're starting to over-sell this service like they did with the old HSIA (ADSL).

In a few months, I can get broadband Internet access at home in Moruga but I just have to hope that the lines don't get cut and stolen... :x

[deathwinger]

Latest updates. It has gone up to 2 Mbps, with spikes over 2. Still experiencing signal drops. Seems when it drops, the signal gradually grows weaker over the course of a minute to five minutes then goes dead, requiring a modem reboot. I'll have to call TSTT about that.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/201939330.png

http://www.speedtest.net/result/201941851.png

[attachment=0:cce2c]2.22-Mbps-TSTT-Blink.gif[/attachment:cce2c]


Das some nasty ping times hoss.

FLOW FTW.

[Sirius]

Oh believe me, when FLOW gets to where I am (should be soon too) I plan on giving TSTT the boot if the service keeps running like this.

[greall]

Right now,it's TSTT dial up at home and TSTT ADSL at work.... :|

I'm looking at the comments made about both Flow and Blink nd hopefully they'll both be able to work out their teething problems before they get here to where I live and work.

Greg

[serenity]

So nobody considering greendot? Thats what I have and it works great.

[Sirius]

If I'm not mistaken their packages aren't as fast as Blink and FLOW right? Aside from that, they use a satellite uplink for their backbone instead of the undersea fiber optic of TSTT and FLOW. What this translates to is while their internal T&T network might be blazing, their communication time to request a page or a file from a remote server is considerably slower than with TSTT/FLOW. It would also render the service laggy for applications like gaming.

[BW]

If I'm not mistaken their packages aren't as fast as Blink and FLOW right? Aside from that, they use a satellite uplink for their backbone instead of the undersea fiber optic of TSTT and FLOW. What this translates to is while their internal T&T network might be blazing, their communication time to request a page or a file from a remote server is considerably slower than with TSTT/FLOW. It would also render the service laggy for applications like gaming.

Why would they still be using satellite connections? With all the new fiber that's landed and all the new wholesale bandwidth suppliers, they have tons of options for their backbone, including a use of a combination of routes (most likely fiber, with satellite retained as a backup).

I'm interested in Greendot, but for the life of them, they won't publish their packages. They've got some really neat technology and licenses (coming out of the recent auction), but it's really difficult to get information about their service.

[Sirius]

Last I spoke to them - a long time ago mind you - they had said when they got enough customers on board to justify the expense of a fiber backbone they'll do it...I haven't heard anything about them getting it yet. A company like theirs I could see their main market easily being corporate WAN connectivity rather than plain old internet service...could explain why they're thriving and not yet on fiber.

[greall]

Last I spoke to them - a long time ago mind you - they had said when they got enough customers on board to justify the expense of a fiber backbone they'll do it...I haven't heard anything about them getting it yet. A company like theirs I could see their main market easily being corporate WAN connectivity rather than plain old internet service...could explain why they're thriving and not yet on fiber.

Greendot supports most of the oil service companies in the southeast especially the offshore platforms off Galeota and Mayaro and that's why my cousin recommended them to me when I asked him about rural broadband Internet solutions as both Blink and Flow aren't anywhere close to getting where I'm at these days.I see that they've gotten more frequencies allocated for their services so I may be able to access their services now as I wasn't able to do as such in the past due to the 'line of sight' issue.

Hopefully,Blink will get here by my birthday in April but I'm not holding my breath to that.

[discipuli]

Green dot is currantly on a fiber backbone , bandwidth from Flow.

IF a greendot customer does a bandwidth test using the Flow server on http://www.speedtest.com, their ping will actually be lower than that of my TSTT connection , 217ms TSTT, 150ms greendot.

Average pings for greendot are now in the 400s i believe , in the days of the say backbone they were 500-600 and occasionally reaching 1000.

Greendots service is good if you absolutely need internet and live in the bush, but can't compete with Flow or Blink..
the actual bandwidth of a greendot residential connection is between 200k-400k these days , a big improvement but nothing compared to Flows 6mbits or Blink's 2mbits.

[Syn]

I've had blink for bout 5 months now on a 2mb connection. It sucks cause im on a 1 yr contract. i did a tracert on cmd and it shows that packets needs to go through a number of gates to get its way into internet and of course these are the gates blink put in place to direct traffic. during the afternoon it would suck so bad you would not believe it with pings of 400ms+ per gate. Now if anyone here can tell me the conditions of terminating the contract and whatever charges that will be incurred cause its not clear on the blink website. I'm goin flow asap

[jpf]

i think blink doubled some of their packages recently but flow still cheaper when u compare the 2mb package for instance

[Trinifieds]

When it works it works great. But dont pray for it to go down..

[jpf]

tell me does blink slow down to like say 25% of the usual speed during peak time because recently flow is-i have a 2mb with flow and getting 512k between like 6pm-12am on speed tests dloads & even youtube slow

[Sirius]

When I experience slowdown on Flow it's barely noticeable. The speed stays pretty fast so you don't notice anything unless you're watching the actual speed of a download or trying to view a Youtube video in HD format.

On Blink, when I experienced slowdowns it would crawl right out of broadband speed. Even loading a web page would result in waiting for images to come through etc.